Field
The described embodiments relate to techniques for communicating information among electronic devices. In particular, the described embodiments relate to techniques for performing link aggregation at an access-point gateway to a network.
Related Art
Many electronic devices communicate with each other in a network (such as the Internet) that includes or is divided into multiple subnets. Electronic devices in a subnet may access the network via one or more gateways or routers. Moreover, the electronic devices in a subnet may be mapped to different gateways in order to avoid overloading any of the gateways (i.e., to perform load balancing or load sharing) and/or to provide redundancy.
For example, in layer-2 networking, load balancing may be implemented using link aggregation in a gateway, such as a switch. In particular, in link aggregation two or more network connections or ports may be aggregated in parallel so that the two or more ports virtually act as a single aggregated port, which has a larger throughput than the constituent connections or ports. Consequently, the aggregated port or link can implement load sharing among the constituent ports. In addition, link aggregation may provide redundancy in the event that one of the constituent or grouped ports fails.
However, link aggregation typically requires the use of protocols, such as link-aggregation control protocol for Ethernet, which is defined in the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.1AX standard. This vendor-specific capability often involves the use of additional or specialized hardware in the network (such as enterprise-grade switches), which usually increases the cost and the complexity of the implementation.
Furthermore, redundancy may also be provided in a level-3 routing-capable switch or router using a first-hop redundancy protocol. In this vendor-specific approach, multiple routers monitor each other and a standby unit may assume active status when an active unit stops working. Once again, this capability often involves the use of additional or specialized hardware in the network.
Because of the additional complexity and expense, link aggregation and/or first-hop redundancy are usually not available in low-end or entry-level systems. This can degrade the user experience when attempting to communicate using such networks.